The background of the invention is that of vehicle seating, seating-related hardware and methods of utilization thereof. More particularly, the area of the present invention is that of a retractable auxiliary seat particularly useful in van or minivan type vehicles.
Most minivans have a maximum capacity of seven passengers. If all of the seats are to have the same width, the seating pattern is typically to have two front seats spaced one from another, three seats in a second row with very little spacing between them, and two seats in the rear row. The rear row typically has less lateral spacing due to the protrusion of wheel wells. With the two-three arrangement between the middle and rear rows, it has usually been found not to be preferable from a technical or economic standpoint to position the individual seats in floor-mounted rails if it is desirable for the seats to be removable, which typically for most minivans is highly desirable. It would be highly desirable if some type of auxiliary seating could be utilized in vans wherein one of the seats in the middle row could be removed and an auxiliary seat placed therein. It would also be desirable if the auxiliary seat could span different dimensions such as the spacing between driver-side and passenger-side outer seats in the second row and the space between the two seats in the rear row.